Club seeks best consumer reporting from 2014

Do you have excellent consumer reporting that you want recognized by the National Press Club? The Club’s journalism contest has competition for the best consumer reporting for newspapers, periodicals and broadcast.

The periodical category includes magazines, journals, newsletters and online reporting. The broadcast category includes network, syndicates, cable and broadcast TV and radio stations.

These awards recognize excellence in reporting on consumer topics with a special emphasis on solution-oriented or strategic-oriented pieces that prompt action by consumers, the community, the government or an individual.

Entries can be a single article or broadcast or a series of related articles or broadcasts that will be judged as a unit. If the entry is a continuing column, no more than five examples should be submitted. Include a letter detailing how the piece or series resulted in action by consumers, the government, the community or an individual.

The deadline for entries is April 1. The prize for each category is a $750 award. The winners will be honored at a banquet at the Club this summer.

Consumer Journalism-Newspapers: USA Today’s Alison Young won consumer journalism for newspapers last year for “Supplement Shell Game,” a thorough look at a food-and-drug issue that resulted in congressional action and two dietary supplements being pulled from the market.

The winner of consumer journalism for periodicals last year was a thorough report by The Center for Public Integrity/ABC News that looked at the plight of miners who faced court rules that seemed to be written in favor of coal companies.

Consumer journalism for broadcast was won by San Francisco station KNTV, which tracked trucks of Sysco Corp. leaving perishable food in outdoor, unrefrigerated storage units, sometimes for hours.

The journalism contest also includes awards for photos, breaking news, online reporting, regional reporting on Washington, international coverage, consumer reporting and newsletter journalism. It also includes a group of awards for areas as diverse as the news industry, aerospace and the airline industry, problems facing the elderly and humor writing.